EMU president outlines plan to improve campus security

Eastern Michigan University President John Fallon announced 16 steps to strengthen campus security on Friday, two weeks after an independent law firm issued a report highly critical of the university's campus safety procedures.

Fallon said the e-mail he sent Friday outlining those strategies was the first step toward implementing some of the recommendations contained in the June 8 report of law firm Butzel Long.

John Fallon

The independent investigation, commissioned by the EMU Board of Regents, faulted EMU for a variety of systemic administrative failures, including lax reporting of crime statistics, inadequate disclosure of campus security policies and failure to update the daily crime log.

The probe also concluded EMU violated the federal Clery Act by not telling students of a suspected homicide on campus last December. Investigators immediately suspected that student Laura Dickinson's death was a homicide, but the university instead issued a statement that foul play was not suspected and did not alter that statement until an arrest was made 10 weeks later.

Fallon's strategies include:

• Assigning oversight responsibility of campus police to the vice president of business and finance; Fallon said this measure has already been taken. The EMU Department of Public Safety previously fell under the student affairs division. Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Vick was placed on administrative leave in March after controversy arose in EMU's handling of information in Dickinson's death.

• Mandating Clery Act compliance training for campus police officers and personnel. National watchdog Security on Campus, Inc. has been asked to conduct the training, Fallon said. The Clery Act mandates that college campuses quickly alert students and staff of any crimes that pose a threat on campus.

• Designating a single individual to oversee the implementation of the recommendations made in the report and the forthcoming U.S. Department of Education report. Fallon said he has not decided who should be assigned to that task.

• Initiating a review of the university's administrative policies and procedures on campus safety to identify and strengthen weaknesses.

Fallon said each of the 16 strategies are in various stages of implementation, and were drafted at different times - from January until after the release of the report. He said members of the EMU Board of Regents and several university officials were involved in creating the strategies.

Fallon said he plans to give issue periodic updates as the measures are implemented.
Fallon's message came on the heels of a no confidence vote Wednesday against him by EMU's faculty council, in which professors called for his firing. Fallon said he has no plans to resign, and the strategies were not released in the interest of self-preservation.

"This is my job. Safety and security is very much in the air and has been for a long time, long before the no-confidence vote," Fallon said.

Howard Bunsis, president of the faculty union, said that while the strategies "sound nice, we've heard platitudes from him before."

Suzy Sweeney, EMU student government interim director of student relations, said many of Fallon's efforts are long overdue.

"The strategies involving the (Department of Public Safety) should have taken place a long time ago," she said. "And they're very, very important."